United States or Oman ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Immediately after the American occupation some five hundred barrels of caked excrement were taken from a single tower in one of the old Manila monasteries. The moat around the city wall, and the esteros, or tidal creeks, reeked with filth, and the smells which assailed one's nostrils, especially, at night, were disgusting. Distilled water was not to be had for drinking purposes.
As Paraguay is approached, low flat banks appear, which for many a long league are marshy and impassable. It is the district of the Esteros, as these flooded lands are called. Beyond them, in the wet season, immense shallow lakes are formed; but when they are dried-up in the hot weather, a grey dusty soil, full of cracks, and covered with wiry grass and low shrubs, is left.
The old moat around the city walls was a veritable incubator of disease. It has been converted into an athletic field where crowds of people take healthful exercise. The esteros, or tidal creeks, reeked with filth. More than twenty miles of such creeks have been cleaned out, although much still remains to be done to put them in really satisfactory condition.
Its destiny seems to be to feed jaguars, for they live principally on the creatures. The chinchilla, another rodent, is very common in the fields and esteros. There is a large heron, called in Guarani the tuyuaju that is, one which walks in the mud nearly as tall as a man, with a bill more than a foot in length.
Herds of deer roam in the open glades; droves of pigs are found in the forest somewhat similar to those of England; and a bird, the ynambu guazu, as large as a pheasant; while quails are seen in flocks in the esteros, with snipe, wild pigeons, and other birds. High up the River Parana is found the magnificent waterfall, El Salto de Guira, rivalling in splendour Niagara itself.
Word Of The Day